Videos by Jihadist groups are widely available on the Web, and under the counter in Baghdad CD shops. The films are violent, disturbing and are used to help foster sympathy for the insurgency in Iraq.
Reporter: John Hendron
John Hendron: You know a video is going to be violent when it starts off with the Al Qaeda logo. Then upflashes what looks like the emblem for 20th Century Fox. Only it says "Islamic Media Front Studio." Then there's a lengthy Koranic verse in fiery English letters saying, "I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers."
[Sounds of violence and chanting.}
Hendron: The title supra says "Top Ten" in letters that mimic the David Letterman Show Then, to the music of jihad, begins a grim countdown of Iraqi insurgent strikes against American troops. A car bomb... Another car bomb... The video is downloadable on the web from a number of sites Iraqis call [inaudible] Resistance Sites. It's also widely sold here in Baghdad in local CD shops under the counter, along with pornography. US military officials believe some of the proceeds go to the insurgency. This is one way Al Qaeda and its allies use new media to wage war. Here in Iraq, and throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, US military officials say Al Qaeda uses the internet to recruit, finance, direct, and communicate with foot soldiers. There are informational sites telling suicide bombers how to pass legally to Iraq through Syria, sites that show how to build a roadside bomb, and site that show websurfers how to use an online system called "Pay Pal" to finance the jihad on credit. But perhaps the most effective thing they do is propaganda.
[Sounds of sirens... bombing.]
Hendron: At an internet cafe in Baghdad, thirty-year-old businessman [...] views an insurgent video on the web between office emails. He snickers as a sniper shoots an American soldier. He says the films give him reassurance that the Iraqi insurgency is restoring the honor of a nation brought low by foreign occupation.
Businessman [translated]: The operations the resistance carries out against the Americans are logical because they are resisting the enemy that invaded the country, an occupation that is hurting people and destroying the country. This is something we are proud of!
Hendron: Not far away, a 26-year-old new father [...] agrees. He's says it's not just radical jihadis who watch the videos with sympathy, it's a broad swatch of Iraqi society. Hd distances himself from the suicide bombers who kill civilians. But he enjoys watching the videos of Juba, the Baghdad sniper, who's revered locally as a folk hero because, the story goes, he never fires more than once and only American troops die.
Father: You know, it's only one single shot so he won't hurt civilians... When you see the film, it's very professional in choosing the place, the time, and the target. I mean, in one of the shots he shot down one of the soldiers and the soldier's colleagues were standing, smoking, not knowing what happened to their friend. He uses a silencer on his rifle.
Hendron: In one segment of the video titled "The Baghdad Sniper," Juba waits as Iraqi children walk past an American soldier, then fires. As the soldier falls to the ground a teenager in the background continues to juggle a soccer ball. But despite the sniper's iconic status, it's still a snuff film. Another video, readily available on the web, "Jihad Hidden Camera," is a bloody parody of a slapstick comedy... Complete with a laugh track and cartoon sound effects, it's a series of short vignettes. In each one, American soldiers are killed or wounded. Compared to the others, "Jihad Hidden Camera" is a slick production.
Phil Alden Robinson: It was an intent to look professional, but in fact it was pretty crudely done.
Hendron: Phil Alden Robinson knows what a Hollywood production looks like. He directed "Field of Dreams," "Sneakers," and other big-budget movies.
Robinson: They use sort of phony film leader at the head which is available from software. And they use some kind of cheesy animation effects. Again, all available in consumer software. This was probably put together on a laptop computer. But it's an attempt to look like a professional production.
Hendron: Robinson says the film doesn't look like it was made in the Middle East at all. Which, if true, would highlight the global nature of the cyberjihad.
Robinson: I have a feeling this may have been done in America. I have that feeling because the very beginning of the countdown leader says "Adobe Premier," which is a software used for video editing. There's also references to Tarzan and to Fox News and to green cards. It certainly feels like someone who has some familiarity with American culture. It's certainly intended for an American audience. The titles are in the English language and the references are America.
Hendron: Larry Johnson is a former CIA and State Department counterterrorism official. He now works for Berg Associates, a Washington security consulting firm. Johnson says the websites reveal a generational gap between baby-boomer jihadis like Osama bin Laden who apparently lives in caves, records analog videotapes, and has them hand-delivered to Al Jazeera and an Al Qaeda Gen-X'er, Zarqawi, whose allies post their videos on jihadi blogs. One site, uruknet.info, even posts a daily Iraqi resistance report in news with the insurgents' point of view.
Larry Johnson: As several friends of mine who are in the military and in the information operations business say, they envy what these guys do. Like a war room in a campaign, they're getting their message out much quicker and much more effectively than we are.
Hendron: Even the US military grudgingly gives Al Qaeda high marks for its use of technology. Major General Doug Lute is the Director of Operations for the US Central Command. He says there's little the US military can do to combat what he calls "an internet library of bid Ladenism."
Doug Lute: Here he uses the internet in particular very effectively which do a number of things which we're not well-structured to counter. He uses the internet to communicate, to recruit, to train, to some extent to command and control, to raise finances, and so forth. You can imagine an army, an armed forces, which were built to defeat the Soviet Union trying to deal with an enemy who is not only lurking in the shadows of the physical battlefield, but now increasingly using to his advantage the internet.
Hendron: Pentagon officials say there are more than four thousand websites that belong to what they call a "virtual caliphate," promoting an extremist agenda, seeking the rule of Islamic law throughout the Muslim world.